Friday, June 24, 2011

strike one

i just got back from cars 2.  rottentomatoes has it at 33% last time i checked, and i'm kind of in agreement with that.
it just didn't feel like pixar; none of that energy or excitement or creativity.  the whole story seemed phoned in.  no originality, the plot and the lines were just run of the mill, painted by numbers.  it felt like monsters vs. aliens in that respect (and that's not a good comparison....)

i wonder if there's something of the godfather part 3 syndrome here, that's it wouldn't look so bad if it wasn't carrying the name of such high quality work? 

sadly, i think the short in front of the movie was even more of a let down.  these are the people who taught us the magic of the short film format with sheer genius like geri's game and partly cloudy.  this was a toy story short that also felt... pretty much what i said about cars 2: cliched, a little silly but never genuinely clever.  i almost felt a little uncomfortable, watching these great characters performing far below their potential.

sigh.

i've often joked to myself that i'd probably end up at pixar right when they start to lose their streak.
thankfully, the guy from disney last week told me that they were looking to hire four permanent layout artists in the next year or so.

besides, the cars franchise has never been their most artistic series.  we're all still excited for brave (albeit a little curious, too.  which is a good thing.)

still, it's kind of left me in a disappointed mood.
but we're going to see tree of life tomorrow, so i've got that going for me.

1 comment:

The Former 786 said...

I knew Pixar's streak couldn't hold up and I'm sad to see it go.

Still, 11 knockout hits out of 12 attempts is no small feat. And this movie will still probably succeed at the box office.

This has to sting for Pixar, though. Ouch.